This invention relates to apparatus for use in the construction of electric circuits. It is particularly concerned with such apparatus for use by students and/or experimentors who wish to minimise the purely mechanical steps involved in building of circuits i.e. the steps involved in making and/or breaking the various connections. It is appreciated that these steps are essential when making out circuits for normal commercial use but these prove to be time consuming and wasteful where demonstrations and/or experiments are being carried out using different components.
A number of proposals have been put forward for constructing such apparatus. Typically the apparatus is disclosed in British Patent Specifications Nos. 1,343,868 (in the name of Gaetamo Soncini filed May 5, 1971) and 1,342,128 (in the name of Arthur Fischer dated Aug. 20, 1971).
In specification British Pat. No. 1,343,868 there is disclosed an apparatus for making up electronic circuits comprising an alveolar structure formed by walls defining a plurality of square sections seats in which can be removably housed a hollow plug-in members which incorporate electronic components. These members connect with other members in adjacent seats. The plug-in members can be easily moved from one position to the other to change the circuits being arranged. However the connection arrangements are complex to make and are perforce limited in that members can only be connected to members in adjacent seats. The electrical contacts of the members too comprise tongues which are relatively fragile so that in operation breakages are likely.
The circuit board shown in specification British Pat. No. 1,342,128 is particularly useful for connecting together the connection of electronic chips or integrated circuits. The units comprise a cover plate which overlie a circuit board having a number of recesses. Into these recesses project terminals comprising four spring contacts which are connected to a single base. These provide a very satisfactory connections but are expensive to construct and fairly limited in their application.
Other forms of apparatus are known for use with conventional component modules. Each component module comprises a housing within which are component is contained and on which is printed information relating to the components including its diagrammatic representation. The housing further comprises two or more prongs for insertion into apertures in the circuit board. The size of the prongs and their spacing is quite conventional so that they can be used for a number of circuit boards. Typically the prongs are 4mm in diameter and spaced at 19mm centres. In such circuit boards sockets are provided to receive these prongs. These sockets may be fixed in prearranged circuits in which case each board can be used for one circuit only. Alternatively the sockets may be provided with additional smaller sockets to receive terminals at the ends of links or jumper cables.
Conventionally there are four of these smaller sockets provided adjacent each of the bigger sockets and the smaller sockets and bigger sockets of a cluster (five sockets in all) are riveted or otherwise connected to a metal disc to provide electrical connections therebetween. The sockets are now fitted into apertures in a circuit board. The circuit board thus made tends to be extremely expensive and not quite as robust as might be desired.